You are here

Privacy Policy

Privacy & Transparency

The FCC is committed to protecting the privacy of its visitors. We collect no personal information about you when you visit our Web site unless you choose to provide that information to us.

Information Collected Automatically

During your visit as you browse through the website, read pages, or download information, we automatically collect and store the following anonymous information about your visit:

the date and time you access our site;

the pages you visit on our site;

if you navigate to our site by clicking a link, the location of that link;

the technical capabilities of the computer you use to access our site;

the internet service provider you use to connect to our site (for example "companyX.com" if you have a commercial internet account, or "universityX.edu" if you connect from a university); and

the IP address (a number automatically assigned to your computer whenever you are surfing the internet) from which you access our site.

We use this information, in the aggregate, to make our website more useful to visitors — to learn about the number of visitors to our site and the types of technology used, to detect operational problems, and to improve the website's overall security.

Information That You Voluntarily Provide

Personal Information
We do not collect personally identifiable information e.g., name, e-mail address, contact or similar information unless you choose to provide it to us. If you voluntarily provide us with personal information, for example by sending an e-mail or by filling out a form and submitting it through our website, we use that information only to respond to your message and to help us provide you with the information or services that you request.

Comments
Any comment that you submit through this website may be made public, including any personally identifiable information that you provide in your submission. We may share your comment with others, including the public, in aggregated form, in partial or edited form, or verbatim.

Prior to commenting, you will be prompted to login, either by providing your e-mail address, or by linking your comment to an existing account on a popular website such as Google, Facebook, Flickr, Instagram or Twitter. While your e-mail address will not be made public, if you login with a social media service, your picture, as well as a link to your profile will be posted alongside your comment.

How Information is Used

The information we collect is used for a variety of purposes (e.g., comments on proposed rules, license applications, or to respond to requests for information about our regulations and policies). We make every effort to disclose clearly how information is used at the point where it is collected so that you can determine for yourself whether you wish to provide the information.

Sharing and Disclosure
We may share the information you give us with other government agencies if your inquiry relates to that agency. In other limited circumstances, such as responses to requests from Congress and private individuals, we may be required by law to disclose information you submit. Information is shared within the agency solely on a need-to-know basis.

Retention of Information
We destroy the information we collect when the purpose for which it was provided has been fulfilled, unless we are required to keep it longer by statute or official policy. Electronically submitted information is maintained and destroyed according to the principles of the Federal Records Act and the regulations and records schedules approved by the National Archives and Records Administration. In some cases information submitted to us may become an agency record and therefore might be subject to a Freedom of Information Act request.

Security of Information

For site security purposes and to ensure that this service remains available to all users, FCC computer systems employ software to monitor network traffic to identify unauthorized attempts to upload or change information, or otherwise cause damage. If such monitoring reveals evidence of possible abuse or criminal activity, such evidence may be provided to appropriate law enforcement officials. Unauthorized attempts to upload or change information on this server are strictly prohibited and may be punishable under the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act of 1986 and the National Information Infrastructure Protection Act or other law.

Cookies and Tracking

In order to provide a more streamlined navigational experience and to track aggregate usage information, by default, this website stores small amounts of data on your computer known as Tier I and Tier II cookies. This information is not retained by the website and is automatically destroyed by your browser after a specified period of time. If you wish to opt-out of this feature, you may do so without loosing the ability to access any information or services by following these instructions.

We do not use persistent cookies (Tier 1) to collect personally identifiable information.

We do not use persistent cookies (Tier 2) to collect personally identifiable information. The FCC does not identify a user by employing such technologies.

Do Not Track
The FCC does not track your individual-level activity on the Internet outside of FCC.gov.

Interaction With Children

This website contains educational content for children under 13. No personal information is collected from them, unless voluntarily submitted as part of a request for information or services. Only the minimum information necessary is collected, and under no circumstances will any of this information be used for other purposes or shared with third parties, nor will personally identifying information be published.

Your Rights

Privacy Act
If any personal information you provide will be maintained in an FCC Privacy Act system of records, you will be notified at the point of collection, as to whether providing information is mandatory or voluntary, and the effects of not providing all or any part of the requested information. Clicking a form "submit" button will constitute consent in this regard. Visit our Privacy Act Web Page for additional information

Freedom of Information
Under the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) and the Privacy Act of 1974, to the extent applicable, you have certain rights to obtain information about you that may be in our records. For more information about the circumstances under which you can get and correct this information, visit our FOIA Web Page.

Third Party Web Sites & Data Sharing Practices

Social Media and Online Engagement
To better engage the public in ongoing dialog, the FCC uses several third-party platforms including bit.ly, Facebook, Flickr, Disqus, IdeaScale, MySpace, Scribd, Twitter, UserVoice, Instagram and YouTube. When interacting with the FCC presence on those websites, you may reveal certain personal information to the FCC or to third parties. Except when used by FCC web staff for the purpose of responding to a specific message or request, the FCC will neither use nor share nor retain such data. For additional information regarding your rights on social media platforms, please see our comment moderation policy.

Data Sharing Practices
The FCC provides you with the choice to opt-in or to opt-out of the different categories of third party tools used by FCC.gov. The FCC also prevents third-party tools from loading regardless of your cookie settings, which provides our visitors to the FCC webpages with an additional layer of privacy protection that prevents these third-party tools from loading at all. Because FCC.gov creates a cookie in your browser, the opt-in and opt-out choices you make will only be effective on the device and browser you use to make your choices, and your choices will expire when the cookie session expires. Once the cookie is created, FCC.gov will retain your settings for [3] years from the date of your most recent visit. Thereafter, you may revisit FCC.gov to renew your opt-in and opt-out choices.

Usage Statistics
This website employs Google Analytics (a service from Google, Inc.) and the URL shortener bit.ly (a service of bit.ly inc.) to collect aggregate usage information. In utilizing this analytics service, the FCC maintains its existing standards in regards to the sharing and disclosure of information, security and privacy safeguards for the data, and the data retention policy, each described above.

Applications
In order to provide you with dynamic content, the third-party applications YouTube, JW Player, and jQuery may be embedded in pages you visit on our site: No personal information is collected as a result of their use.

Privacy Act Information

It is the policy of the FCC to ensure the accuracy and protect the privacy of every individual whose protected information is stored in Commission systems or records. The Commission carries out this policy by ensuring that it has and implements procedures to regulate the collection, maintenance, use, and dissemination of Privacy Act-protected information. Find information about all the FCC's many efforts to comply with the Privacy Act of 1974 on our Privacy Act Information webpage.